From a pen device that can determine cancerous tissue to health screening apps, more and more people are opting to go digital when it comes to healthcare. This pen-like device can tell you whether or not tissue is cancerous (Photo from University of Texas at Austin)
With so many initiatives and programs dedicated to staying healthy, more and more people are doing their best to keep a healthy and fit lifestyle. Whether it’d be getting enough exercise or adjusting your diet, it seems leading a healthy life is now more important than ever. To help with these goals, several apps and wearable devices have released to help keep track of your workout stats and even give you reminders to stand up, like FitBit. The popular wearable is a great way to ensure you’re staying active, but it could also help those with diabetes.
FitBit is teaming up with Dexcom, a company that creates continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, for the new Iconic smartwatch. How it works is the CGM devices are paired with a sensor that’s placed under the skin and measures a person’s glucose levels every few minutes. Currently, you need a transmitter attached to the sensor to see the readouts on a smartphone or Apple Watch. FitBit and Dexcom are hoping to make this an accessible feature for the Ionic watch by 2018. But what about greater health issues that could lead to fatal diseases? Thanks to some devices in the works, detecting health issues early will come at ease.
First, there’s the MacSpec Pen, which is designed to help determine whether tissue is cancerous in roughly ten seconds. The small, pen-like device works by issuing a drop of water onto the surface of the tissue. The water then pulls in molecules from the tissue, which is analyzed by a mass spectrometer – a machine that rapidly measures the mass of chemicals. From there, the systems reports the status of the tissue.
This is a big step forward for doctors working with tumors. The status of a tumor can’t be determined until after surgery. If it turns out some cancerous cells were left behind, another surgery is required to remove them. With the new device, doctors can easily determine if they need to remove more tissue or if they already took out all the cancerous cells.
With digital health on the rise, it’s no surprise Google wants to get in on it. Recently, they acquired Seattle startup Senosis Healthy, a company devoted to turning smartphones into health devices. The company has already created apps that let you run checkups that normally require a sensor. There’s HemaApp which checks your blood’s hemoglobin count with the phone camera and SpiroSmart which uses the microphone to measure your lung functions.
So far, it’s not clear how Google intends to use the company’s assets. The team will apparently stay in Seattle and act as the “backbone” of a digital health team. It’s clear Google wants to do something larger and probably want to build on Senosis Healthy’s well-established apps. They may even want similar apps built into Android devices.
With these breakthroughs, people can not only monitor their own healthy more efficiently, but doctors are able to improve their procedures. It’s good to know that a lot of on the cusp technology is going into devices that could save lives instead of making your phone slightly better.
That was ten seconds, here are your results. That’ll be $1698.
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